Organizational techniques such as cleanly arranged shapes, visual groupings of relating items and descriptive text improve readability of a diagram and enable users to better organize the diagrams. With conventional diagramming applications, users typically spend a lot of time managing the shapes in their diagram to achieve good visual results. Conventional diagramming applications either allow freeform diagramming or structured diagramming. In freeform diagramming authors can arrange content however they like, but no logical relationships are defined by the content. The diagram is simply a picture and interpretation of any diagram meaning is done by the viewer not the software. In structured diagramming authors arrange content according to explicit rules or by invoking specific commands to define the relationships in the diagram (for example, using a compose group command to positionally associate shapes together that generates a composite shape from several individual shapes).
In the freeform approach, the diagram cannot be used with other software tools or features that act on logical relationships since no relationships exist. With the structured approach, authors struggle to discover, learn, and properly use structuring commands to define logical relationships.